CONFIDENTIAL
British Embassy
11 Guang Hua Lu Jian Guo Men Wai Peking People's Republic of China
Telex 22191 Cable Prodrome Peking
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Your reference
Our reference
RAJ Bunten Esq
APA (G)
HONG KONG
Date
29 June 1988
HI 020/6
MECF
13 JUL 1988
INDL
MY CALL ON DR GOMES, DIPLOMATIC ADVISER TO THE GOVERNOR OF MACAO, 25 JUNE
17
1.
I called on Dr Gomes during a visit to Macao on 25 June. Dr Gomes is urbane, relaxed and friendly with a sharp sense of humour. During our one and a half hour conversation the following were the main points of interest:
(a) The Governor of Macao's visit to Peking had gone very well, even
better than the Portuguese had anticipated. The Governor had met Li Peng, Ji Pengfei, Zheng Tuobin, the Minister of Communications and other senior figures. To Dr Gomes the most interesting point was Li Peng's frank admission that it was important for the PRC to achieve the confidence of the people of Hong Kong and Macao so
to convince the Taiwanese that the "one country, two systems" could work. Dr. Gomes was unaware of previous explicit statements of this policy by Chinese leaders. On other points the Chinese had shown themselves understanding of Portuguese difficulties.
(b) The Portuguese were pleased to be following the British and had
benefitted from the British efforts over Hong Kong. Dr Gomes was convinced that there were many areas where the British had been able to overcome Chinese sensitivities or difficulties which left matters very straightforward for the Portuguese.
(c) Generally speaking, the Portuguese most serious problems were not
with the Chinese, but with the situation they had inherited from their forebears in Macao. Foremost of these problems was that of localisation. Historically, the Portuguese had had little contact with the local Chinese. As a consequence, the better educated Chinese had gone into the private sector. Those educated Chinese that there were had no experience of government, spoke no Portu- guese and did not understand the Portuguese Government's system. Thus, even if they were brought into the senior levels of government
(the junior levels were already 90% Chinese run), they could not communicate with their Portuguese colleagues. The Portuguese had instituted a system whereby Chinese graduates would go to Portugal for training in Portuguese and the Portuguese political and legal
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